White Sox 4, Padres 0: All the small things lead to a big win in San Diego

In baseball, the little things can lead to big moments.

A scoreless game through five innings, the White Sox offense broke through against Padres starter Michael King in the sixth and added insurance runs in the seventh to beat the San Diego Padres, 4-0. The winning streak extends to five games, their longest of the season.

After Tristan Peters drew a one-out walk in the sixth, Andrew Benintendi decided to bunt for a hit. It wasn’t ideal, as Benintendi popped it up towards third base. But Manny Machado was shifted closer to the shortstop, allowing Benintendi’s bunt to land safely for an infield single. Munetaka Murakami followed with a soft grounder towards first base, but old friend Gavin Sheets only had a play at first base. With two outs and runners in scoring position, the table was set for Miguel Vargas.

On a 2-0 sweeper, Vargas caught the pitch off the end of his bat, but got enough loft to land it in right field despite a 64.8 mph exit velocity. Both Peters and Benintendi scored, and the White Sox were up 2-0.

In the seventh, Chase Meidroth singled to get things started and reached third when Sam Antonacci roped a double down the right field line. With no outs, Edgar Quero just needed to focus on making good contact in play to drive in another run and capitalized by hitting a hard grounder past a diving Jake Cronenworth to score Mediroth.

With a gutsy Antonacci on third, Peters laid down a sacrifice bunt toward the first base line. Sheets only had one play, which was to step on the bag as Antonacci scored to give the Sox a four-run cushion.

That lead was made possible by how great Sean Burke looked on the mound. He only threw 88 pitches, but Burke lived in the strike zone, posting 66 strikes. His constant attack on Padres hitters resulted in six scoreless innings, during which he allowed four hits and one walk, while striking out eight.

Burke’s slider against righties was super effective. He generated five whiffs on 10 swings and his Called Strike + Whiff Rate was 53 percent on the pitch for the game. The four-seam fastball velocity averaged 94.7 mph, which was above his season average of 93.9 mph.

Bryan Hudson pitched a scoreless seventh as he continued his impressive run of effectiveness. With six outs to go, Will Venable decided to see how far Grant Taylor could go on 35 pitches. The eighth inning was smooth, but Taylor got himself into trouble in the ninth.

Taylor allowed an infield single to Jackson Merrill and then threw a wild pitch in the dirt. With Merrill advancing to second base, Taylor walked Machado and Xander Bogaerts. At one point, Taylor threw seven consecutive balls to load the bases with no outs.

In a dicey situation with Sheets batting, Venable stuck with Taylor, and on a 2-2 count, his curve was originally called a ball. But Quero used an ABS challenge, and Taylor’s curve barely got in the strike zone. That little margin of success was Taylor’s final batter of the game. Venable called for his closer, Seranthony Dominguez, who got Miguel Andujar to fly out and struck out Luis Campusano to end it.

Game Notes

• Sean Burke's season ERA is now 2.72
• Sam Antonacci went 2-for-4. He's now batting .271 with a .826 OPS
• Tristan Peters went 1-for-1 with a bunt single, walk, and a sacrifice RBI
• Seranthony Dominguez picked up his eighth save, a total already that exceeds the 2025 team lead held by Jordan Leasure with seven.

Record: 16-17 | Box Score | Baseball Savant